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Story · Ajahn Brahm

Ajahn Chah's eyes stop on the four-year monk

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Letting Go of Fear | Ajahn Brahm | 22-05-2009

2 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

Imagine this, this was in February after my - I had only been a monk for four years, and this was the second biggest festival in the whole Buddhist calendar in Thailand. The full moon of February. It was called Magha Puja. Second only to Vesak in its size. So together with all the other disciples of my teacher Ajahn Chah, we went to his monastery, Wat Pah Pong, where there must have been five or six thousand people, lay people, and all the monks were there as well. And in the evening after the chanting, it was time for the talk, for the sermon, and I was looking forward to hearing Ajahn Chah teach something inspiring. But sometimes he didn't give the talk. Sometimes he would ask his second monk or his third monk to give the talk. Sometimes he would ask for any monk to give the talk, and that was scary. And what he'd do, he looked down this line of monks, this line of maybe 100, 150 monks, and if his eyes stopped at you, you were in trouble. Big trouble. So I remember this very clearly, his eyes went down the line, past all these very senior monks who could give really good talks, and he came to me, and went past. Phew. I was so relieved he was going to choose someone below me, someone who could speak Thai, because the talk had to be in Thai. But then his eyes stopped and went up the line again - he was a sadist - and stopped at me. "Brahmavamso, get up and give the talk!" I'd only been four years as a monk and I had to give the talk on this huge occasion in front of about six or seven thousand Thais. As I tell the story, it was 6000. Now it has gone up to 7000. This is just what happens when you give talks. And with all these senior monks and in front of my teacher, how would you feel? You were trained it didn't matter. You just went up there and gave a talk in Thai. It didn't matter how it came out, because the whole purpose of that was teaching you how to overcome your fear.

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 12:36 (to 15:17)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Four years a monk, he was told to give an hour's talk in Thai to thousands, and the crowd grows with each retelling. Ajahn Chah didn't care how the talk came out; he cared that his monks stopped being ruled by fear. When you're pushed onto a stage you didn't choose, it needn't go well. Showing up is the lesson.

In brief (our summary)

At Magha Puja at Wat Pah Pong, before thousands of lay people and some 150 monks, Ajahn Chah's gaze runs down the line of monks, passes the four-year monk Brahmavamso — then comes back and stops: “Brahmavamso, get up and give the talk!” — an hour, in Thai.

Teaching point

Ajahn Chah trained his monks to overcome fear by throwing them in; how the talk came out didn't matter.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Letting Go of Fear | Ajahn Brahm | 22-05-2009 · 2009-06-12 · ▶ watch from 12:36 to 15:17 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

1 other telling of this story

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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